Cthulhu Gonfalon

As soon as Boss Snow initiated the attack, Sui Xiong instantly felt an imposing manner that was totally different from the kid’s.

She exerted a pressure on people that was totally different from Sui Xiong’s, separate from how one felt when facing the magnificent God. It was swift, fierce and terrifying, making one feel as if he’d met his natural enemy at the top of the food chain who could impose a powerful manner.

Her eyes also changed. Her eyes which had looked normal before began to turn golden-red, and bluish-white patterns started to crawl on her white and fatty face. Small scales appeared on her face, and at the same time, horns were growing from her sideburns and behind her ears, which was really terrifying.

“Shuang, close the door! Xian, activate the magic array!” she said coldly. “Phil! Attack him!”

Soon, a peculiar child called Shuang jumped out and bypassed Sui Xiong, who was at a stalemate with Boss Snow. He arrived at the doorway with only one step and waved his hand gently, and bang! The heavy door closed. Then a blue-white light appeared beneath their feet and soon spread to the grocery store. Obviously there was a powerful wizard who was secretly practicing a spell.

Meanwhile, Sui Xiong could hear heavy steps, and the sound of a metal boot came from the inner room.

Sui Xiong could not give them the chance to finish activating the magic array, or he would be trapped. He shouted and reached out ten of his tentacles and stabbed Boss Snow and Shuang. He also used one of his tentacles to block off the inner room, so the man inside could not get out.

He had already known who these people in the grocery store were and had exerted all his power; even a God would not pull his punches when facing several dragons. If he did, it was because he thought the upper layers of skin on his face were too thick and he wanted his opponent to help him remove a couple.

This was just like in the world of online gaming. A world-class pro might be able to compete with an amateur with one hand behind his back, but what if he was competing with an advanced amateur whose level was already close to a pro? He might as well be asking for a fight!

Let’s put this situation in the scenario of a soccer game. Even if they had conceded ten goals to the Chinese team, the Brazilian team could still win a game, but the same thing could happen against the Russian team!

The tentacles made from cold energy targeted them. Two tentacles were holding the enemy in pincers, eight tentacles were attacking Boss Snow, one tentacle was blocking the gate of the inner room, and the rest of the four tentacles were protecting Palin. At the same time, Sui Xiong was making more tentacles by consuming cold energy, so he could enhance his attack damage.

As soon as the door was closed, half of Shuang’s body was still human and half had become a dragon’s body. Shuang grew very tall and had a dragon head, two dragon claws, a dragon tail, and a human body which had turned maroon. Shuang was waving his claws extremely quickly, as if he was brandishing sharp swords, accompanied by a piercing sound as if the sky was cracking. Claws and tentacles collided, bang, bang, bang! It sounded as if a group of men with super strength were swinging their axes to make a hole in a hard patch of ice.

But Shuang was not as powerful as Sui Xiong and repeatedly backed away. Were it not for his tail, he would already have been defeated.

The battle between Sui Xiong and Boss Snow was rather different. Boss Snow had turned into a ball of bluish-white cold light, and her figure was hardly recognizable. Sui Xiong’s eight ice-tentacles shrouded this cold light, but his tentacles became covered with frost. The two layers of ice were eroding each other silently, which made Palin nervous and terrified as he watched from the sidelines.

As a wizard himself, Palin wasn’t very powerful, but he was eagle-eyed. He could tell that the Void Faceless got the better of Shuang and could not possibly lose, while Sui Xiong was in a stalemate with Boss Snow. Their magic powers were nullifying each other and both of them were trying to gain control of the cold air. This sort of combat was the fiercest, since the intention to kill was unspoken but clear. This was similar to a fight between two advanced wizards who were using the same spell in a fight. The key was in who had better control of the spell and the accumulation of their mental powers. If one of them stuck his neck out, the other would avail himself of the opportunity and badly injure his counterpart!

As for the man in the inner room, from the very beginning Sui Xiong did not intend to attack him. The tentacle immediately collapsed as soon as it reached the doorway of the inner room, becoming a big, firm ice door. It blocked the gate and prevented the man inside from getting out.

Sui Xiong had already had his tactics ready from the beginning of the fight. His plan was to cut off the connection between the man in the inner room and the people outside so he could focus on fighting with them.

Even a lion needs to be careful when facing a rabbit, so one should never give his enemy an opportunity that he can exploit to his advantage!

Sui Xiong’s tactics were correct in general. If everything went well he could defeat Shuang, then Boss Snow and finally their support in the inner room.

However, things rarely went as planned.

Bang! Not far away, the floor suddenly broke and a maroon figure jumped out, another guy with a body that was half human and half dragon. He was a bit shorter than Shuang but had equal strength. However, he didn’t try to rescue Shuang or attack Palin; instead, he dashed towards the inner room.

Sui Xiong was surprised and reached out two tentacles to stop him. The guy had no intention to confront him with toughness; instead he slid against the floor right beneath the two tentacles. Then he arrived at the doorway of the inner room that was blocked by the ice wall. He yelled, brandished his claws, and hit the ice wall harshly.

At the same time, the man in the inner room began to hit the ice wall too.

Bang! The ice wall collapsed and a tall, strong adventurer in heavy armor with a huge glaive on his back appeared. He strode out the room and did not initiate an attack, but instead said, “Do you intend to destroy the Dragon-roar town?”

Both Sui Xiong and Boss Snow, in the midst of their fight, were in a daze and they slowed down their fighting speed.

“Snow, I have told you that your way of doing things is no different from playing with fire and that you would make a rod for your own back one day,” the big guy said in a low, muffled voice while standing in a pile of broken ice. “See? The day has come!”

In fact, Palin happened to know this guy because he was a famous person in the four towns in the northwest.

“Are you Phil the Armored Demon? The famous ranger?” Palin could not help asking. “How did you get involved with the dragon? Or are you yourself a dragon?”

His assumption made sense in many ways. Judging from the current situation, the Good Eyesight grocery store was actually a store run by a group of dragons that had transformed into human bodies. A man who walked out from the inner room of this store was most likely a dragon too.

“He is neither dragon nor human,” Sui Xiong said. Having slowed his fighting speed, he could now spare some effort to see who this new guy really was, and he immediately saw a peculiar scene. “To be honest, I am also very curious to find out who he really is. There is nothing inside the armor, and I don’t feel his soul either. Actually, the most impressive thing about him is the sword on his back.”

“Baster is indeed a good sword,” the adventurer called Phil said in a mechanical voice. “I mean, do you really want to destroy Dragon-roar town?”

“Yes, I agree with him! Stop fighting! Just stop fighting!” Palin said, trying to help the big guy mediate. “If you continue to fight, I think Dragon-roar town will be totally destroyed before we can determine a winner!”

The cold air was permeating the room, as both Sui Xiong and Boss Snow were very good at using cold magic energy. The cold air had made the temperature in the room drop significantly. Everything that was unprotected was now covered in thick frost. Looking around, one could see that almost everything was shrouded in ice.

Palin also realized that there was some cold air spreading outside since the magic array that covered the grocery store had been broken during the fight. He could imagine that the air around the grocery store must have become very cold. If a villager or an adventurer passing by the store took a single breath of the cold air, he would have felt so cold that his body shivered. In fact, while they were talking, they could clearly hear someone sneeze outside.

And this was under the assumption that the cold air had been restricted inside the house by the magic array. What if the magic array collapsed during the fight and a huge amount of cold air spread outside?

Thinking this, Palin could not help shivering even though he was under the protection of Sui Xiong’s magic power.

Moreover, since both sides had their backups, the fight was probably going to escalate. Palin had heard the story of how Gerrard was rescued by the Void Faceless from Gerrard himself. The Void Faceless turned into a huge ash-beast floating in the sky, each of its tentacles as thick and strong as a mountain. His enemy was a scary monster that had turned the whole forest into his body. Almost every tree was his doppelgänger and tentacle.

The fight was so fierce that even the wind and the clouds had changed their color. The mountains were razed to the ground, the forest was burned to ashes and the ground was covered with deep ravines. Besides, when the Void Faceless and the monster fought, the aftermath lit up the shadow plane where there was only eternal night; even the shadow plane was as bright as day.

If the Void Faceless had a really big fight with the three dragons as well as Phil the Armored Demon, who was famous in the four towns in the northwest, the scene might be even worse than the one in the shadow plane. It could be as impressive as a blockbuster and many innocent people would die and the cold air might leak everywhere. When the fight was over, maybe only ten percent of the population in Dragon-roar town would survive. This could only happen when both sides had tried very hard not to exert their full power and the survivors would be very lucky.

Of course, the kind wizard did not want to see this happen, so he tried his best to persuade them not to fight. He said everything he possibly could and exhausted all of the negotiation tactics he had learned from his old uncle Soth.

Thanks to his efforts and the persuasion of Phil, the three who were still fighting finally agreed to stop and sit down to the negotiating table. The three decided to solve this by talking instead of fighting.

Soon, the cold air covering the grocery store was absorbed and the three who had been fighting were now sitting at a table. Apart from the ice left on the floor, it was hard to see any trace of the horrible fight that could have wiped out the whole village.

The three stopped their battling behavior and returned to normal.

Of course, the three dragons were no longer in the disguise of an ordinary person. They appeared how they were supposed to look when a dragon changed into human form.

Since they had gotten over the idea of fighting, they thought it was basic manners to show their real appearance when facing a God.